Velvet- Huzama Habayeb

This novel "Velvet" is the next in a series of books about Palestine I've read and would like to share with you. It takes place in a refugee camp in Jordan and is about "Hawaa" which translates to "Eve" in English. It is beautifully written with detailed descriptions so real you can feel, hear, smell the life in the camp, down to the dew drops on an early morning, and the sewage and foul odors. The book has a circular timeline, beginning as she buys a beautiful tea set for the home she dreams of, then goes back in time to her childhood as she cooks, cleans, learns to sew (velvet representing love and desire), and she protects her brother from the abuse of her father. The book continues throughout her marriage life, divorced life, and past the point of buying teacups, to a violent and despairing end at the hands of the same brother she once protected. It's heartbreaking in scenes, angering in scenes, beautiful and hopeful in scenes. Domestic violence is rampant, sexual violence, political violence interwines with struggles of poverty and exile and womenhood. Hawaa survives it with a practical, down to earth attitude of passive aggression mixed with hope. I found it a difficult book to read, and even more difficult to put down.

By Huzama Habayeb, translated from Arabic. I recommend this as a realistic depiction of life (and death) in refugee camps.

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